


Unbreakable Chains

by smolderingskies



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Genie/Djinn, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 09:49:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15682977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolderingskies/pseuds/smolderingskies
Summary: Genji has never seen another genie like himself, and has resolved himself to a lonely existence.  Until one day, his lamp is picked up by a little girl who has a scientific motivation to see what happens when two genies are put face-to-face.





	Unbreakable Chains

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on my Overwatch imagines Tumblr, overwatch-summer-reads, as requested by Tumbr user ironbar36.

Genji could feel when he was being passed from one set of hands to another. It was a rough scraping of the sides, the feel of calloused fingers cradling the outside of his vessel, that made his figurative gums ache and his fingers tingle. He hated the shackles that bound him, the form which he had been forced to take. It had all been part of the pact he’d made all those years ago, when he’d been on the brink of death, to save his life. He’d agreed to this, to serve, yet he hated it.

In all these years, these decades, he had never met someone who genuinely wanted to be his friend, who wanted to speak to him as an equal.

He had the power of the world at his fingertips - the power to grant any wish, save a few minor rules. Some masters had been kindly but needy, their three wishes typically simple and basic and fast - food in their bellies, roofs over their heads. These were the ones who rubbed every lamp-shaped object they saw simply because they were desperate for anything, even magic, to help them. Some were greedy, who had usually bought the vessel from its previous owner, and they bided their time with him, only calling upon him when they needed some political sway or another favor that could wreck worlds if he wasn’t careful.

During the journey between hands, he was often in a half-awake form of consciousness. There was no living space inside the vessel, no miniature studio apartment - just him, sleepy and uncaring, drifting along and feeling the stroke of fingers that were usually gentle and sparse.

His home often smelled of tea - that much he was aware of. His vessel was a steel-cast teapot adorned with dragons, and he felt full and at peace when someone brewed a hot pot of tea within it, gingerly touching only the handle and the spout, sometimes with a cloth over their fingers to avoid burns. It might have been his favorite part of the imprisonment.

And then he was awoken, with a rumbling and the jolt of adrenaline that typically came with being pulled from his slumber. He had used to maintain a spiel, a string over words that rolled out of his mouth every time he was awoken. But by now, he assumed the newest master knew the drill, at least from general mythological knowledge, because the rubbing of the lamp with one’s bare hands was a very deliberate act. He’d only explain, these days, if they were completely clueless.

This one was not.

A small, dark-skinned girl was jumping around in near-hysterical joy at his arrival, chanting something along the lines of, “I found a genie! I found a genie!” Genji smirked in approval - he’d never had this enthusiastic of a response before, but he could certainly get used to it.

His legs materialized, and he landed on the floor of what appeared to be a rather well-used workshop, littered in various metal scraps and greasy cloths, technological parts that he could probably never understand. It smelled of soldering and gasoline, and a little bit of curry. Was this all hers? “What is your name, little one?” he asked.

“I’m Efi,” she said, instantly focused, although the smile did not drop off her face. “And I have a task for you.”

“Ah, yes, the wishes,” Genji said, inspecting his nails. How could he ever forget? How could anyone?

“No, not the wishes.” She gestured at a little hunk of brassy metal beside his teapot. “I just need you to talk to her. She’s a genie, too, but her lamp broke so I made her a new one, and I think she could use someone like her to help her through it.”

Genji wasn’t sure which was most implausible - that this thing could be a genie’s lamp, or that this girl had another actual genie in the same room as him. He supposed it wasn’t impossible for him to have been in such close proximity to one in the past - he’d been stored in royal vaults, for example, to be bargained for when the time was right or to be passed down for generations. And he might not have been the only one in that vault. But he had never come face-to-face with another, and the thought of it it made him frown with nervousness.

“I-I’m duty bound to grant you wishes,” he stammered, coming up blank with something better to say.

Efi rolled her eyes. “Well, then, I wish you would talk to this other genie for me.”

He felt the familiar pull of magic, binding him to the act he was asked to do. This wish… it would be so easy to grant. But he tried, as he always did, to strain against the magic that bound him, just to see if he could.

The girl was already hovering over the other “lamp,” whispering to it inaudibly, as if it could hear her. Then, she briskly rubbed it three times with her hand, and stepped away as a golden mist poured from the makeshift spout. “I’ll leave you to it,” said Efi, winking at Genji, before leaving the room.

The mist consolidated in the center of the room, making a figure that was larger than Genji had expected, and he gasped as her face materialized, then the rest of her. A beast of a creature - multi-legged like a centaur, colorful and patterned, glittering and metallic, with a round masked face framed by bestial horns, glowing eyes. He fell to his knees, tears springing to his eyes. Was this a god, come to test him?

She quietly looked around for a moment, her energy buzzing so heavily she made a whirring sound. “Greetings,” she said to him, her voice gently surprised. “Where is Efi?”

Genji rubbed his eyes hard before the magic forced him to stand. It willed his mouth to move. “She thought it would be best if we spoke alone,” he said, staring at the floor. “She said you’d want to talk with another genie.”

Appraisingly, the creature looked over him. “You are a genie?” Her voice was reverent, awed. “You are a genie, just like me?” Her eyes narrowed in surprise and pleasure, and she approached him with the strange movement of all her legs, grasping his face in her hands. Then, if her eyes could express a wide grin, they did so. “I am so excited to meet you! I have never met someone like me. Are you very old? Have you served for kings and queens? You must tell me everything!”

Genji was quiet for a moment, then he heaved a heavy laugh of relief, wiping the tears away that pooled at his eyes. “Only if you tell me everything, as well.”

The two spoke for what must have been hours, and at some point Genji felt the magic that was forcing him to talk ebb away, and he was speaking of his own accord, granting a wish with no compulsion for the first time he could remember. He and the other genie - her name was Orisa - had traveled across vastly different regions, once or twice they had almost nearly crossed paths. They exchanged stories of a man they had both served, who seemed to be the same person, as he made three wishes with Orisa, and then immediately undid the same three wishes with Genji.

They spoke of what it was like to be between masters. Orisa’s old vessel had been an intricately sculpted clay oil lamp, and to her, the between had smelled like frankincense in comparison to Genji’s oolong. When her vessel had broken, she had not been freed, but instead floated along for who knows how long as a spirit without direction or form, sometimes causing chaos unintentionally, until she was found by Efi who found a way, through technology, to communicate with her and find what she needed. Since, Efi had not used a single wish on her, but would do anything to ensure that Orisa was of a stable mental condition, including bringing a third party in to evaluate her. This is where Genji had come in.

While Genji could remember being human, Orisa had never remembered being anything other than what she was. He thought it might explain her strange, near-divine form, but she merely laughed off the sentiment, saying that there was nothing unusual about her.

After a great deal of time, Efi returned, eager to see how her wards were getting along. Famously, it seemed. So she sat with them and went over what they had learned about each other, the strange coincidences, the stranger similarities in their personalities despite their differences. The human girl was beyond pleased. She had something important to show them. So she pulled out bundles of blueprints, of machines that were protectors and attackers, machines that could be companions and caretakers.

“I want to make heroes,” she explained. “We need to make the world a better place, for everyone, and we can start with these. But I need your magic to do it. Will you help me?”

And for the first time, Genji saw the beauty in his imprisonment. For the first time, he would do something productive with it - completely of his own will.


End file.
